Nancy Wilkinson said she will start planning next Halloween’s decorations on November 1. “I’m a lunatic, I make notes about what works and what to do next year,” Wilkinson said she began decorating her Adair Street yard in 2004, and it’s not just for Halloween. Wilkinson’s yard art is ever-changing. “It’s fun and challenging. It’s like a full-time hobby,” she said. “And I get to learn things like soldering and setting up Paper Mache.” Wilkinson said due to Covid-19 this year she will be turning off the lights on Halloween night. Photo by Dean Hesse.

Nancy Wilkinson’s Halloween decorations include a crew of skeletons hanging out watching movies on her Adair Street front porch. Photo by Dean Hesse.

(l-r) Jenny, Aaron, 11, and Pete Shannin in front of their home on Avery Street in Decatur. Jenny said because of quarantine they had time to make their Halloween display a little bigger this year. For Halloween night she said the neighborhood kids will do an early trick-or-treat and they’ll leave out candy for kids from other neighborhoods that may come by later. “We plan to put a long table at the end of the driveway and spread the candy out in little bags to avoid a germ inferno. If it gets too big, we’ll shut it down. Last year we gave out 1,000 pieces of candy.”
Photo by Dean Hesse.

This ghoulish greeter emerges from the Kregan family’s lawn on Forkner Drive in Decatur. Photo by Dean Hesse.

Huckleberry Starnes stands in front of his house on McKoy Street in Decatur. A product designer by profession, Starnes spent a couple of weeks putting his enormous display together and said his goal is to bring joy to people and help motivate kids to get out of the house by making his home a walking destination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Folks stop by continuously throughout the day, but the show really begins at dark with smoke, lights and writhing zombies. Photo by Dean Hesse.

You know you’re in Decatur when you see a Haunted Planter in a Halloween display. The home of Huckleberry Starnes on McKoy Street. Photo by Dean Hesse.

(l-R) Beck Maxxon, 14, Rowan Balmas, 8, and Sophie Balmas, 12, zombie walk out of a plume of smoke at the Maxxon’s front yard display on the corner of McKoy and W. Hill Streets in Decatur. Photo by Dean Hesse.

Beckett Parrott, 5, just happened to have his candy bucket on hand while walking with his parents so he got to be one of the first to help test out Huckleberry Starnes’ candy delivery system on McKoy Street in Decatur a few days before Halloween. Photo by Dean Hesse.

Caroline Genzale does a walk around of the 70-foot-long candy ball run she designed to deliver Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters in front of her home on Adams Street in Decatur. The Georgia Tech Engineering Professor said she spent 4-5 weekends sketching out the plans. “There is definitely some geometry involved.” she said. Photo by Dean Hesse.

Georgia Tech Engineering Professor Caroline Genzale and her daughter Adaline, 2, look on as neighbors Livia, 6, and Henry Lynch, 8, help test out the candy ball run on Adams Street in Decatur that Genzale designed to deliver candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Photo by Dean Hesse

Keshley Phillips-Parker (l) and Shane Parker strike a pose with skeletal inhabitants of their spooky Mardi Gras Cemetery themed Halloween display in their front yard on E. Pharr Road in Decatur. Shane said they will put a table with candy at the street Halloween night and he and Keshley will be roaming the yard in costumes. Photo by Dean Hesse.